Car Audio Blog

Electric bikes are constantly growing in India these days. Entrepreneurs are optimistic in this business, despite the low sales trends. In India, there are more than 40 e-bike companies manufacturing electric bikes. Almost all companies importing electric bike parts in completely knocked down (CKD) kits from countries like China, Taiwan and assembling in India and selling in India.

Being keen about product quality & market capture, Indian companies are currently concentrating on

1. The dispatch of quality CKD kits at vendor end to reduce the inline quality issues.

2. Investing in R&D and indigenizing the e-bike components and developing them in India. This helps the manufacturers have a better control over quality. Some companies developing e-bike dealers & service equipment manufactures.

3. Good afterwards sales service. The whole electric bike technology is new, the more the company cares its costumers more goodwill it gains.

E-bike business in a nascent stage, there are many business opportunities are seen for coming years. Taking E-bike accomplishment into consideration, there are companies like Hero electric, Ampere Vehicles pvt ltd, Ultra Motors ltd, Lectrix Motors Ltd, TI and abounding added establishing themselves into this business. Hence, no aggregation yet captured this business. This simply means that still there is a scope for a newbie to come and stand in the business of manufacturing electric bicycles.

During my work experience of 4 years in this electric bike R&D; my team was tired of looking for vendors who can make a single e-bike part in India. As these parts are imported from outside, they are of non-standard for Indian vendors. This beat the vendors to assignment in developing them as they are bleak about E-bike business as a whole. This forces the OEM to import which increases the cost of the e-bike. Increase in cost reduces the motivation in costumer to buy. Hence it requires the initiation to build this business and everybody should be part of it.

With this introduction of importance of the indigenization, we will discuss the various business opportunities associated with e-bikes.

Various parts of electric bikes & related business, can be classified as follows

1. Sheet Metal & Tubular parts – Chassis, Front fork, Handle bar, Swing arm, Centre stand, side stand.

2. Plastic & PP parts – Front mould, Side covers, Handle cover, Seat, Side lower covers, etc.

3. Drive train parts – Electric Motor, Power Electronic controller, Batteries, Charger, DC-DC Converter.

4. Electric & lighting accessories – Head lamps, Indicator lamps, Buzzer, Horn, Wire-harness , Connecting sockets, etc.

5. Miscellaneous genitalia – anchor levers, Electronic accelerator (Throttle), Switches, Speedometer, etc.

6. Dealer and service Equipments – Hydraulic tools, jigs, ramps, dealer test equipments for electrical components, etc.

The above list goes on and on. The objective in classifying & listing the parts is to show that a business opportunity lies in making each of the above parts. Almost 60% of the aloft genitalia are aforementioned as that of convectional auto genitalia but with some dimensional change. It is true that a lot of R&D is required to develop a good quality and suitable product but it starts with the initiation from every entrepreneur.

Indian Entrepreneurs should booty the claiming of developing and accumulation aftermath the electric bike apparatus which abate the assembly amount of the bike and ultimately the amount to the costumer. This will lead to more sales of electric bikes & vehicles. This will increase the share of e-bikes on road to the convectional vehicles. This reduces the tail pipe emissions and noise pollution leading to pollution-free Earth.

Technorati Tags: electric bicycle, electric bicycles, electric bike, electric bikes, folding electric bike

Historically, internal combustion (IC) engines dominated the motorized bicycle market, and they still do in many markets. Most still use small two stroke or four stroke IC engines, most notably the Robin Subaru, Honda and Tanaka.

The 1900 Singer Motor Wheel was a wheel incorporating a small IC engine that could be substituted for the front wheel of a bicycle, while the 1914 Smith Motor Wheel was attached to the rear of a bicycle by means of an outrigger arm, a design later taken up by Briggs & Stratton.

Electric bicycles use rechargeable batteries, electric motors and some form of control. This can be a simple as an on-off switch but is more usually an electronic pulse width modulation control. Electric bicycles developed in Switzerland in the late 1980s for the Tour de Sol solar vehicle race came with solar charging stations but these were later fixed on roofs and connected so as to feed into the electric mains.13 The bicycles were again answerable from the mains, as is accepted today. Battery Systems in use accommodate lead-acid, NiCd, NiMH and Li-ion batteries.

Electric bikes can be power-on-demand, where the motor is activated by a handlebar mounted throttle, and/or a pedelec (from pedal electric), also known as electric assist, where the electric motor is regulated by pedaling. These accept a sensor to ascertain the pedaling speed, the pedaling force, or both. An electronic controller provides assistance as a function of the sensor inputs, the vehicle speed and the required force. Most controllers additionally accommodate for chiral adjustment.

Range is a key consideration with electric bikes, and is affected by factors such as motor efficiency, battery capacity, efficiency of the driving Electronics, aerodynamics, hills and weight of the bike and rider. The range of an electric bike is usually stated as somewhere between 7 km (uphill on electric power only) to 70 km (minimum assistance) and is highly dependent on whether or not the bike is tested on flat roads or hills.14 Some manufacturers, such as the Canadian BionX or American E+ (manufactured by Electric Motion Systems), have the option of using regenerative braking, the motor acts as a generator to slow the bike down prior to the brake pads engaging.15 This is useful for extending the range and the life of brake pads and wheel rims. There are additionally abstracts application ammunition cells. e.g. the PHB. Some abstracts accept additionally been undertaken with cool capacitors to supplement or alter batteries for cars and some SUVS.

The activity costs of operating electric bicycles are small, but there can be ample array backup costs. Riding an electric bicycle to work or to the store instead of taking a car has long term financial gains.

Technorati Tags: electric bicycle, electric bicycles, electric bike, electric bikes, folding electric bike

This feels actual strange.

I’m riding down an alley in San Francisco, pedaling as you would on any bicycle. Each time I put my bottom down, the bike presses on a little further. It’s all very normal.

But then, with the flick of a about-face on the bike’s handlebars, it shoots advanced with a strong, smooth, automatic thrust. Quickly, I’ve hit 20 miles an hour.

This isn’t accustomed anymore.

This is Ultra Motor’s A2B, a $2,500, zero-emissions scooter that just happens to also be an electric bike.

The A2B looks actual abundant like a approved bicycle, except that it has some actual able attractive components, and a advanced centermost axis in which its lithium-ion array is enclosed.

But in fact, the Ultra Motor association absolutely don’t appetite the A2B alleged a scooter because one of their arch business credibility is that it doesn’t crave any affectionate of authorization or appropriate permit, as does a motorcycle or scooter. And that means that a new buyer could jump on it and get going without any kind of bureaucratic runaround.

The A2B is expected to be available, most likely from bicycle, scooter, and motorcycle dealerships, in September. At $2,500, it seems somewhat expensive, but Amy Robinson, Ultra Motor USA’s carnality admiral of marketing, credibility out that the aggregation is accession the A2B adjoin high-end bicycles–which can calmly run two grand–as able-bodied as adjoin gas-powered driver cartage like cars, motorcycles, and mopeds.

I also told CEO Chris Deyo that I thought the electric bicycle might cost too much to appeal to a large number of buyers, but he said that if you compare the one-time price of the A2B to the ongoing costs of commuting by car, moped or motorcycle–given the cost of gas, insurance, maintenance, parking, and parking tickets–it’s not so steep. “We found, in talking to folks, that (at) $2,500, it’s a considered purchase, but it’s of value to them,” Deyo said.

Ultra Motor is expecting the bike to appeal to urban commuters in their 30s and 40s who want an alternative to their car or any other form of transportation that requires them to find parking or buy gas.

“We call it the Mini Cooper of electric bikes,” Robinson said. “It’s sturdy and solid, but nimble like a bicycle. And it’s a abundant another to accepting in (a) car.”

Plus, she added, the aggregation hopes to allure commuters who like the abstraction of benumbed a bike to work, but who abhorrence the abstraction of actuality bathed on arrival. And the A2B’s smooth, active motor lets them do aloof that.

Technorati Tags: electric bicycle, electric bicycles, electric bike, electric bikes, folding electric bike